Sitting here and thinking that I really need to get to bed, but afraid that I might not be able to sleep because my brain is on fire and I am so thoroughly pissed about a situation- one that I can't go into detail here...but damn I sure can't wait for Karma to work its magic - patience is such a tough thing for me sometimes and this is certainly one of those times.   


Suffice it to say that the song "Mean" by Taylor Swift has some really great lyrics that resonate with me about this person:  


All you are is mean
And a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life
And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean

Ok - enough said about that person! 

On a very good, positive note- I had such an AWESOME class tonight at Gold's- the numbers keep growing- had 6 people the first night and a month later tonight we are up to 13 people and 3 of them were brand new to Body Pump.   Everyone worked really hard, they challenged themselves - just very uplifting and positive.  I left the gym on a cloud having taught a great class and feeling like people went home feeling good about their hard work.  YAY!    I also spoke to the director of the facility in Newark and she said that all the members who took my Body Pump class this month LOVED it, they loved the class (new to all of them) and loved my teaching style.  So now it's all about the budget to see if they can work Body Pump into the schedule full time.  Again, patience...story of my life.  But this feels like it could happen. 

Off to bed- up way too late.  This is the only downside to my Tuesday class- I get home just after 9pm, take a shower, make something to eat.  By the time I barely get on the couch, Bill goes to bed and voila it's now 1am and I have not done anything except email, facebook and blog!   So much work I should have done!  "Tomorrow"....yikes! 

Wow- 3 weeks since my last post- WTH?  

It has been a busy couple of weeks in just about every way.  Busy with both careers- travel and fitness.  As I write this, I have taught 33 classes this month, 5 more to go to round out at 38 classes for the month of August.  Of course, I have also gone for several walks (not as many as I would have liked) and have gone dancing twice each week with the Hubby.    I had written down earlier this month that my goal was to be down 27 pounds total by the 9/2 weigh-in...well it is within reach if I can stay focused this week- I am currently at 24.4 - so 2.6 is what I need and I will be pushing myself as hard as I can to get there.  In addition to my teaching schedule, I also have a few walks on the schedule with Diane and of course dancing with Bill a few times.

I am really loving my fitness career once again- I am having so much fun bringing fitness classes to people and getting positive feedback from them.  As I have stated more than once, Body Pump was my first fitness love, it's where I got my start and still to this day remains my favorite format to teach.  My Tuesday night class is going wonderfully and I continue to get good feedback each week after class from the members who stay to chat.  Word has also gotten to my boss at the gym because she has told me that she is getting great feedback also.  This makes me happy because I truly look forward to that class every single week.   The classes I've been teaching in Newark have taken off, I have one more to teach and then the facility will evaluate the new programs that they demoed this month to decide what they add to the schedule- I HOPE they add Body Pump and that I get to teach it.  It's a small location, so the largest class was 7 people and that was great- you would have thought there were 30 people with the energy and enthusiasm.  What's even better- all newbies and even one employee took the class and then afterwards wanted to know what is involved in becoming an instructor.  I have been subbing spin at a variety of new locations and have also been getting more positive feedback, so all in all it has been a great fitness teaching month.

Related to the fitness world, I need to get something off my chest.  Several weeks ago I had posted a picture of my hat that I wore while teaching a BP class (it was a SF Giants camouflage hat)- I had a member putting equipment away while class was setting up and when I asked her why she was leaving she said she could not take class from me because I was wearing a war hat.  I explained that it wasn't a war hat, but that I'd be happy to take it off.  She still declined to stay because she was having a dinner party that night and thought it would be bad luck. When I posted this picture and "conversation"- I was merely trying to see if others would consider my hat a 'war hat' & if anyone knew of cultures that had this type of superstition.  Perhaps I should have phrased it that way.  In any case, a fellow instructor questioned what my hat had to do with the essence of the BP program.   Because that was not where I was going with my original post- I deleted his comment, it was not worth the time or energy to get into that discussion with him.  I work for facilities where the dress code is presentable fitness attire and that is what I do wear to each of my classes.  I am not the first, nor will I be the last person to wear a hat while teaching a class - I don't wear them often, but when called for, I do.    The really sad part of all this is that this fellow instructor decided to make his own Facebook posts about me (but stating things generally without naming names) instead of having a one on one conversation privately with me.   So for the record here:  I don't consider my fitness career as "being paid to workout" - in fact I despise people who do have that mentality and the clubs who hire just anyone before they've done any training or certifications.  I was not making fun of my participant nor was I ethnically profiling them.  I was not seeking validation and I was not being unprofessional on any level.   And I completely agree that classes are about the members, not the instructors.  I have always felt that way and have always done what is best for my members.  I have no idea if this person reads my blog- if you do, you know who you are and I would like to put this behind us as "water under the bridge".   If you really knew me, you'd know that the generalizations you made about "me" aren't true.  Maybe you need to get to know me better.

Travel work has been super busy- everyone wanting to get things booked for last minute trips.  I am also working closely with my two new IC's with their cruise groups and they are doing well.  I have a random person who contacted me about possibly coming to work for me as well.  We are going to talk this week.  

I am super excited to break out my Tap Dance shoes next month.  They added an adult class in the evenings at Red Morton Community Center and I asked Bill if he'd like to try it out- he said "SURE!"- so we will be tap dancing on Monday nights!  I can't wait- we went and bought his tap shoes today!

August has been a pretty fun month overall.  Dancing has been great.  Our Wednesdays have been super fun and Heide has been doing an amazing job of getting people there on Wednesdays.   We've been learning a ton of new dances- so much so that my head spins with all the choreography!   Wednesdays are also most of the time "drama-free" and I don't have to see that nasty ex-friend of mine.   Really can't wait for Karma to do it's thing with her...I know it will...;patience can be so tough sometimes.   We went River Rafting a few weekends ago, that was a blast- so much fun!   We saw Eddie Money in concert on the beach in Santa Cruz. And another highlight of the month- Baby Brooklyn was baptized on 8/21 at Redeemer and her parents even enjoyed the church services - so hoping to see that family there on a fairly regular basis.   Brooklyn was such a good baby....in fact I tease and say she takes after her Godmother because I was a very happy, easy baby when I was her age.   A few more milestones to round out the month- my nephew Michael turned 18 and started his final year of High School and our Godson Nolan started Kindergarten!  

All in all, it's a pretty darn good life.  I am blessed.

Scratch that....29 classes this month has turned into 36!

Well, I survived the first week of August, taught  7 classes:  3 Body Pump and 4 spin.  I went on 3 walks- average 5 miles per walk, went dancing Wednesday and Saturday nights and I'm feeling good!   I taught at a few new places:  had my first regular Body Pump class at Gold's Mountain View and other than the usual getting used to the lay of the land at a new place, all went well.   I also taught at a new facility- branch of Fitness 101 in Newark where they are previewing Body Pump as a possible addition to the schedule.  I had a small group of brand new Body Pumpers and knowing this, I asked them if they minded staying about 10 minutes overtime so that I really was able to go through technique with them- it was awesome.  They loved the class, so hopefully it will turn into something new.  The drive to Newark was a breeze ~ finding the building not so much, - LOL.

My walks were a challenge- increased my mileage and had to do it alone with BFF in Cabo!  But it's all good.  I am still experiencing issues with my left foot- and I'm pretty close to seeing about a Dr. visit to find out what the cause may be.  I just don't get it, only on long walks does it flare up- all other activities are fine.   We went dancing twice this week, would have loved to go Friday also- but a made the mistake of sitting on the couch at 5pm and guess the week's activities caught up to me and I crashed....for 3 hours!

I subbed a spin class at Gold's Mt View Saturday and other than one member complaining that I only did a 45 minute class (which is how the schedule reads)- I guess the regular instructor goes the full hour- which I didn't know in advance.  But I did receive so many compliments from other participants.  One gentleman said, "who trained you?" and when he found out that I was Madd Dogg certified, he smiled and said, "yes, you can always tell- all of the good instructors are Madd Dogg trained"  he went on to give examples of how I taught certain things that he loved.  I was beaming.   I had another participant come up and say that she really appreciated my examples and descriptions regarding form and mentioned that "we don't get that very often here"- which saddened me...that's our job as instructors- to instruct.  Several others came up and thanked me for class, complimented my music selection, etc.  It was a great way to start out a Saturday!

I am on track once again with the scale and just hit my 10% weight loss goal.   This means that I have lost 10% of my original body weight- so yes I started WW in May at 194 pounds...I've now lost 19.4 exactly!  So close to 20, but guess it was meant to be to nail the 10% to the point!  I am looking forward to soon saying good-bye to the 170's...have already said Adios to the 80's and 90's!  For good!!

Probably the big downer this week is finding out that my mother has started smoking again- through some questioning and my sister's discoveries- we've determined that she started smoking about 3 weeks ago, but has only smoked about 1-2 packs over that duration.  She is not smoking in the house and as of Thursday has not smoked again- she is "trying" to stop again, but admits that it is very hard and that she really enjoys smoking- she enjoys the cigarettes, etc.  Sigh.  Although I understand addiction (I was married to an addict the first go round)...I still have such a hard time seeing someone unable to stay away from something that is so detrimental to one's health.  But I know that I can't control her, I can't babysit her- it is her life and she is 82, if she wants to smoke herself into death- then so be it.  Although, what I try to remind her is that she is so darn strong health wise that it won't kill her- she'll just end up living a long unhappy existence when she is carrying around an oxygen tank, etc.   Sigh.

So the new week is upon us already and I am way behind the eight ball with work- I have a ton of things that I need to get done- a week ago.  However, I won't be in my office tomorrow since I will be taking my mom to the Dr. to have the procedure to see if her ulcer is all cleared up.  Fingers crossed.  I will attempt to get some work done at the hospital- hopefully I can get online there.

This week brings me 11 classes to teach - yes 11, in 5 days no less!   I have 5 Body Pump classes and 6 spin classes -  3-2-2-1-3 is the distribution!   I have also added to my calendar 2 walks- don't think I can fit any more into the already packed schedule..and of course dancing Wednesday and Friday...finishing off the week with a rafting trip on Saturday--let's hope my arms aren't mush after all that PUMP!   I am really enjoying subbing all of these classes and teaching at new facilities- it has given me the spark, the new enthusiasm for this industry that is my co-career!

Now for some much needed rest to get up bright and early for Spin & Body Pump 6-8am!   Bring it on!

Game On!!  August is going to be my month...bring it on!

This last week has been a bit crazy and although I've stopped and wanted to blog, I think I was almost afraid to put words down on paper for fear that I might jinx things.   But I must write it out- in fact, I had not even talked about everything with anyone except Bill this week until this weekend!  

It has been a crazy string of events.  On Monday this past week I received a phone call from another instructor needing a sub for her 6am Friday Spin class and in her message she complimented that the 6am crowd really liked me when I subbed for another gal a month ago and they are so hard to please.  In the same message she also said "I heard you teach Body Pump, I manage other clubs and might have an opening for you"- well that was music to my ears of course.  I met with her to complete new hire paperwork and was then offered the Tuesday night class at Gold's Mt. View...starting August 2nd - yes, this week!   Additionally, I was added to the sub list for this group of Gold's gyms- so there will be other teaching opportunities.  

Also, for the month of August- Fitness 101's corporate office is doing a health & wellness promotion and bringing in some classes as a "preview" and if they get good feedback, may be adding as new classes to their schedule, so I am teaching Body Pump there 4 times during the month of August.  Add to that a few sub needs at PAC and OFJCC and I think my total number of Body Pump classes to be taught in August is now at 12-13 classes!  Do you know how excited that makes me?   I actually pulled out my very old releases (going back to BP30- we are now on BP78) to see what old stuff I can bring into these classes this month!  So excited! 

Friday night I taught a special class at the PJCC- every last Friday of the month is "bring a friend Friday" and we have a special class that is not ordinarily on the schedule- I taught Line Dancing.  We had about 16 people in the class, everyone had a great time and everyone was very interested in a Series of Line Dance classes to be offered- so I am very optimistic that this will turn into something as well.   On a related note, unfortunately one of my instructor colleagues has some family issues right now and I will be subbing her senior fitness class- where I typically teach line dancing- the members are already looking forward to it for the last 3 Mondays in August.

All in all, right now- I am scheduled to teach 29 classes in the month of August- mind you that up until this past Thursday, I only "owned" 1 class per week and of course now with Body Pump, that is 2 classes per week - but I am subbing like a crazy lady this month and I am extremely excited to be BACK!   I know there will be times that I am exhausted and these late midnight/1am bed times will be fading real soon because many of these classes I'm teach happen to be at 6 or 7am!   But this is what I have been striving for and things are finally starting to fall into place.  

My WW journey is still progressing.  I had gotten down to a total loss of 17 pounds on the 15th and then the following Friday weighed in as having gained 1 pound- which was I'm sure due to several days in a row of eating out both during our weekend away and the few nights following - that's bound to happen, as of this last friday, I was back at the 17 pound loss and it's time to move forward from here and my goal for the month of August is to weigh in on 9/2 with a total of 27 pounds lost - that is 5 weeks to lose 10 pounds...I think it's reasonable when you consider all of this activity that I'll be putting in- keeping in mind that I still plan to get in my walks and some yoga also!   

Some additional progress- people who really know me, know that I do not eat fruits and vegetables as a main stay.  I'll eat corn and potatoes (starchy veggies)- and will eat an occasional grape, strawberry or pear...but I'm not one to say "oh I'd LOVE to have an apple right now" or fill in any fruit in place of apple.  Well, I have been making my own fruit smoothies: using frozen fruit, vanilla non fat yogurt, orange juice and non fat milk and they are delicious!   So I am feeling good that I am putting some more nutrients into my body!   They also seem to help stave off my craving for chocolate! 

Well, onto the first week of August- I can hardly believe that...6 classes to teach this week and they are Body Pump Monday, Tuesday & Thursday and then 3 spin classes- 2 on Friday and 1 on Saturday...

Going to miss my walking buddy Diane for the next 2 weeks while they are on vacation; although, this will give me the opportunity to do some longer walks to help train for Nike 1/2 marathon in October!